THE EIGHTH CONTINENT

In this SF thriller by Bruno and Savage, a construction crew’s contract gig on the moon turns into a potential deathtrap.

Commercial diver Nick Morrison is looking for work in the mid-21st century. He eyes a job with privately owned space company Five Stones; becoming an astronaut was his childhood dream, and the pay is hefty. After months of training, Nick and five crew members land on the moon to construct the “Big Sling.” This massive contraption’s purpose is to provide Earth with cheap solar power. But there’s quickly trouble, starting with the crew’s awaiting habitat, which is missing items and has clearly been raided. As other companies already have teams on the moon, Nick and the others suspect their nearby competition. It’s soon apparent, however, that Five Stones itself is shady enough to spark an investigation into insider trading. And Mission Control definitely has secrets, including a deal that the crew knows nothing about. Getting answers won’t be easy, not when people on both celestial bodies consider the crew expendable. The authors’ tale is exhilarating from the start—in a pre-lunar scene, Nick evades an incensed, unstable fellow diver. His rich backstory (born to an Afrikaner mother and a British father) adds interest to his character, and the assorted crew, which includes a mountain climber and a former United States Marine, is equally compelling. Narrative tension slowly builds with the crew members’ growing distrust of Mission Control, the other lunar teams, and, eventually, each other. Considering the grand setting, it’s an effectively simple story invigorated by the authors’ striking prose: “The base of the mountain broke from the plain like a steep wall, and the rover’s outbound tracks hugged it, curving to the south.”

This stellar near-future tale masterfully fuses SF thrills with an enthralling mystery.